TinkerFairy1
New Member
This may be a dumb question and I apologize if its already been asked, but will we have to wear the bracelet at all times? I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't want to wear a clunky bracelet for my entire vacation
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NextGen CIT (Central Intelligence Thread)
- Thread starter PeterAlt
- Start date
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
John
Well-Known Member
Well there you go......I was mistaken, but one isnt dependent on the other is it?
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
No, not at all...but I think the point was that if they can't seem to get one to operate then how are they going to get the other one to.
John
Well-Known Member
LOL point well taken.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Point being is that the infastructure is not there and what they installed is woefully inadequate.
Rasvar
Well-Known Member
There are multiple wifi systems in the park. The wristbands will not be talking to the open guest wifi. They will be using one of the secured wifi networks. The secured system is more widespread in the park than the public system.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
This whole thing will be a giant mess when rides go down. Not sure how they will address that. Maybe they will have a person at the ride who will instantly be able to switch your FP to a later time.
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Doesnt mean jack if they networks are constantly going down.
flynnibus
Premium Member
How often have you had a vendor in the parks tell you that you could pay with a credit card because the network was down?
mousehockey37
Well-Known Member
If today 12/30 was any indicator of how they can mess up, it'll be fun. Apparently everyone was told to stay away from EPCOT, well, at about 3pm, EPCOT was the emptiest park of the 4.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Aren't all the POS stations hardwired?
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
Recently? Few. When they first rolled out credit cards/room charge to all the carts back in 04/05? A lot.
My point is the infastructure & network architecture they're installing has been woefully inadequate thus far.
flynnibus
Premium Member
And my point is - you haven't seen the infrastructure and network they've installed for this. What people use for public internet isn't necessarily the same as what this uses.
flynnibus
Premium Member
No - all those handheld terminals used by ODV are not.
TRONorail10
Active Member
According to the WDW FP+ Experience website:
As to why they apparently want to discourage park hopping, possibilities include:
- The system/software is not yet ready to support FP+ park hopping.
- Park hopping makes it difficult to project theme park attendance. WDW wants to have an accurate count in order to plan resources (CMs, food, hours, etc.) accordingly.
- Park hopping puts a strain on Disney transportation and so they want to discourage it.
- Time spent hopping is time not spent spending money.
- It's simply an oversight, something they will correct later once they realize its implication.
These are all great points, and I want to start out by saying I agree with all of them. While Disney does plan pretty well for crowds already, FP+ could help give more detailed info for labor operations concerning specific attractions, therefore allowing the labor department to more accurately schedule cast members during specific time periods. I feel the Disney transportation is large enough already to handle the strain, but if they are discouraging park hopping, this equals less guests travelling between parks, which equals less busses needed to operate. Less busses equals less maintenance and less fuel costs. Yes, time spent hopping means guests aren't spending money, but at the same time, I can go a couple hours inside a theme park and not spend money. So in theory its a good argument on paper, but in reality your assuming guests are spending money nonstop 24hrs a day, which they reall are not. I believe the biggest reason is the first one that was stated, the SOFTWARE INFRASTRUCTURE is not ready to support park hopping yet. The NextGen RFID system has been continuously evolving from the beginning, it keeps GROWING. The system in place at Be Our Guest isn't even fully sustainable just yet, but part of that is also due to guest trying every which way to alter the ordering system. (Example: Guests trying to mix QSR Meals and Snacks on the same transaction) Even though Snacks and QSR are both on the Dining Plan, they are 2 seperate forms of payment and were never designed to be used together on the same transaction. You can't tell the computer you want a meal and then expect the computer to ASSUME the other extra item is a snack. The computer needs to know what (1) form of Dining Plan you are using up front.
NormC
Well-Known Member
They already do.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
Yep, I have some insight into this as I was a contractor for Outdoor Foods (ODF) and Disney "participant locations" (Think Arribas Bros or Mitsukoshi) back in 2007 when we installed Symbol brand handheld POS machines with a "Stitch" application that Disney created specifically to work with credit cards/room charges. It failed miserably.
Since then they tried a couple of other ideas and finally went with portable versions of the Matra POS software and touch screens like they use at all of the retail indoor spaces, MUCH more robust and user friendly. I don't know what the uptime rate is, but I know its significantly higher than the "Stitch" program.
mousehockey37
Well-Known Member
The park hopping end of this system is going to be an issue, especially if Disney decides to do away with hopping altogether. There are variables that Disney can't control as to why people hop. The #1 variable being the weather. Most of us know that a rainy day in EPCOT, you don't have to many options for hiding, the World Showcase is wide open. Without being able to park hop, you're going to see Disney struggle against the weather. If the weather is bad, they are going to have a harder time trying to get people to go to EPCOT as opposed to the MK or DHS. Only if the weather has a chance of clearing out later will you see some people try to "stick it out" to see Illuminations or the WS at night. This is where the hopper is wonderful. As it works now, you can go to a park with more shelter and things to do inside during a rainy day, and then if the weather clears, you can head to another park at night.
Depending on the length of your trip and what you are trying to see, not having hoppers is going to make you plan differently. For example, on my last trip, my DGF loves Wishes, and I love Illuminations and we wanted to see both shows. Of the 4 nights that we had to be in the parks, we had a ADR in the MK then headed to EPCOT for EMH. Our ADR was at 730, so we missed both Wishes and Illuminations, that was fine. Next night, storms rolled through late in the day, we didn't exactly know which way to go, so we went to the MK and caught Wishes (we originally were going to EPCOT for Illuminations, but the WEATHER changed that plan because the weather cleared out in the MK first). Next night the weather wasn't looking good, but we took a chance and the weather cleared for Illuminations, but it was a nail biter. Our final night we went to the MK for the Electric parade, as Wishes was going on, we were running from ride to ride before EMH started.
So, using my own experience, had we not had the hopper option, we might not have gotten to see both fireworks shows. So it's going to be interesting to see how Disney tries to herd the guests to different parks if the weather doesn't want to cooperate.